Heroin Addiction, Treatment, and Facts.

Heroin Overdose: A Picture of Abuse

I can describe a cactus. I can tell you about its thick, bulbous leaves, and how they’re covered in spines. I can explain how the cactus has dry, tannish spots on its leaves, and how tall the cactus is. I can literally read the dictionary definition of ‘cactus’ to you, but if you have never seen a cactus, all of my words are useless. Take a look at one, though, and you know exactly what a cactus looks like, no words required.

Sometimes a picture says it all.

Such is the case with this couple from Ohio. Both are passed out from heroin use, inside a vehicle, with a small child in the rear seat. The story makes you cringe, but it’s a story that needs to be heard.

What Happened?

Last Wednesday in East Liverpool, Ohio, James Acord was pulled over by Officer Kevin Thompson. Acord was driving erratically and weaving in and out of traffic. He told Officer Thompson he was bringing his girlfriend, Rhonda Pasek, to a nearby hospital. She was passed out in the passenger seat. An affidavit from the arrest says Acord’s head was “bobbing back and forth,” and that “his speech was almost unintelligible.” Immediately after speaking to the officer, Acord fell unconscious himself. That was when Officer Thompson noticed a little boy in back of the car.

Rhonda Pasek’s 4-year-old son was in the back seat, witnessing his mother and her boyfriend overdose on heroin before his very eyes.

Officer Thompson noticed Pasek turning blue and called emergency medical technicians to the scene. The technicians administered Narcan, a powerful anti-overdose drug, to Pasek, possibly saving her life.

Acord pled guilty to the charges of operating a vehicle while impaired as well as endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to one year in jail, had his driver’s license revoked for three years, and was fined $475. Pasek pled non-guilty to the charges of endangering the welfare of a child, disorderly conduct, and public intoxication, and has a bond set for $150,000.

Setting an Example

The pictures of them unconscious in the vehicle were taken by the arresting officer. Less than a week after the incident, the city of East Liverpool decided to publish the pictures on the city Facebook page. Their reason for doing so, (from the page):

“We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug. We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess. This child can’t speak for himself but we are hopeful his story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.”

The pictures are graphic, but they reveal so much about the heroin epidemic that has swept our country. Heroin addiction is so awful that couples with children are passing out behind the wheel. These two were made examples by a state that knows firsthand how terrible the heroin epidemic can be.

Ohio has a Heroin Problem

“We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time that the non drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis.” This was published along with the pictures on the East Liverpool Facebook page. The city speaks from experience.

Heroin overdoses rose by over 70% in Ohio from 2012 to 2013. The following year, they rose by 300%. Ohio had the second most drug overdose deaths of all fifty states in 2014. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) called Ohio’s heroin problem “an emerging threat to public health and safety.” As of this year, 18 Ohio residents die per week of heroin. 92% of those imprisoned in Ohio have a history of drug addiction. The Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA) website sums it up well: “Heroin addiction is an epidemic in Ohio, affecting countless individuals and families.”

The OSBA site also deals with some legislation recently passed in Ohio to combat the problem. The Attorney General’s Office has established a Heroin Unit for prosecution support and extending education. A plethora of laws have been passed recently to further criminalize heroin dealers. The site says the state “is mounting a vigorous fight against heroin.” Casey’s Law was passed in 2012, strengthening the rehabilitation process for heroin addicts by allowing for court-ordered involuntary drug treatment by request. The Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System requires those receiving opioid-based prescriptions to undergo a patient review process.

Countless more legislation is being tossed at the heroin epidemic in Ohio. Unfortunately, Ohio is not alone in this fight. The heroin epidemic is national, not contained within any state’s borders. Although Ohio has it bad, America has it bad, and the numbers prove it.

America has a Heroin Problem

Current estimates show there to be about 900,000 heroin users in America, with 586,000 of them addicted. Approximately 10,000 people die from heroin overdoses a year. To put that in perspective, by the time you finish watching a two-hour movie, three people will have fatally overdosed on heroin. The people overdosing are not suicidal maniacs running around with multiple needles in their arms, either. The CDC determined 81% of drug overdose deaths to be unintentional. Regardless of what the picture on the East Liverpool website may look like, and regardless of what you may have in your mind as an image of a heroin addict, these are real people, most of them young, and they need help. The average of an American heroin addict is 23.

We part with more words posted alongside the picture of James Acord and Rhonda Pasek on the East Liverpool Facebook page: “The poison known as heroin has taken a strong grip on many communities not just ours, the difference is we are willing to fight this problem until it’s gone and if that means we offend a few people along the way we are prepared to deal with that.”